Home Canning Pickled Peppers AND Pickles

This post is brought to you by the letter "P".

Before I present my latest adventure in home canning, I propose we look at a problem posed by Mother Goose.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers;
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked;
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

As it turns out, this tongue twister is a paradox. That is, a self-contradictory and false proposition. Why? Because Peter Piper couldn't have picked pickled peppers. He could have picked Peppers for pickling but NOT pre-pickled peppers. To pickle something it must be preserved in a brine or marinade.

Which is exactly what we did to these peppers.

I had brought some peppers back from my grandma's garden over the weekend since she has a bumper crop this year. When I returned home, I found that some of the peppers from our garden were ready pick, and then my pretty neighbor Shawna pitched in some of her peppers for the canning effort. So this is a three-garden blend.

Before we did anything else, we prepared the pickling "potion". I asked my oldest daughter to pour together vinegar, water, and garlic. I put this mixture on the stove to boil, then filled my water bath canner (if you're in the market for a water bath canner, check at Walmart. I found that they offer canners at the lowest prices) half full with water and placed that on the stove to heat up as well.

I mentioned that I was using some of my neighbor's peppers to fill the jars this week. My neighbor and I planted our gardens at the same time this year. It's been fun to watch each other's gardens grow and to compare and contrast the progress. She mentioned that she would like to learn how to "put up" her produce, so I invited her over for a crash course in home canning.

To put it pleasantly, my daughters adore our neighbors. In truth, they practically stalk her and her pup from our porch on a regular basis. The patience she put forth while canning with my two precocious little people is praise-worthy.

Since we mostly had banana peppers, we decided to slice them for sandwiches. We each picked our station and went to work, cutting the peppers into rings.

My oldest daughter was excited to help, so I assigned her the job of seeding the peppers. We cut the tops off and then piled the peppers in front of her. She loves her "My Safe Cutter" knife that I purchased from The Pampered Chef for her a couple of months ago. It's such a great tool. I can keep her busy cutting fruit and vegetables the entire time I prepare dinner now. It was the perfect tool for hollowing out the peppers too.

Here is our assortment of peppers, all sliced and ready to be packed into jars. I mentioned that we were using banana peppers, but we also added other peppers to the mix. I had selected a recipe for "Hot Peppers" in my Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving. It's my go-to book for all canning and freezing questions.

Pack the peppers tightly into hot, sterilized jars. (I like to use the end of a wooden spoon to gently press them down). Pour on the hot vinegar mixture, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace. Then run a table knife down the inside edges of the jars to release any air bubbles that may have formed.

Wipe the tops of the jars dry, place the heated lids over the jars, and screw on the bands until tight before carefully placing them in the boiling water of your canner. Bring the water back to a boil, then cover and process for ten minutes. Remove the canner from the heat, then let it cool for 5 minutes before removing the jars to a countertop covered with towels to remain cooling for 24 hours. As the jars cool, you will probably (hopefully) hear the "Plink, plink, plink." of the jars sealing. You might notice from the picture below that I added some chopped zucchini to the top of these jars. We were a little short on peppers to fill the jars that we had prepared, so I added a few chunks of zucchini to the top of each to fill them up.

Hot Peppers from Ball Blue Book of Preserving

1-1/2 lbs. banana peppers
1 lb. jalapeno peppers
1/4 lb. serrano peppers
6 cups vinegar
2 cups water
3 cloves garlic, crushed

Leave peppers whole or cut into 1 inch slices. Mix peppers together. Combine vinegar, water, and garlic in a large saucepot. Bring mixture to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Discard garlic. Pack peppers into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust 2-piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

Notes: You don't have to stick to the recipe when it comes to the types of peppers. You can use all banana peppers or mix types of peppers in any ratio. If you like milder peppers, be sure to remove the seeds before slicing. Reminder: When cutting or seeding hot peppers, wear rubber gloves to prevent hands from being burned.

Before I proceed with the part of the post dealing with pickles, I am going to have to discontinue my puny attempts at alliteration. If not for my own sanity, then to prevent all of you from becoming prejudiced against the precious letter "P". If I keep this up, I may need a prescription!

Okay, let's push on....

We began preserving the pickles in the same way that we began the peppers, by mixing together water and vinegar. Only this time, we added pickling salt to the pot too, then brought the mixture to a boil. It is important to use pickling or canning salt (available at your local grocery with the other salts) instead of regular table salt for canning because table salt can cause the finished product to darken or become cloudy.

Then we sliced the cucumbers. These cucumbers were a little larger than I like for canning. I was away when my cucumbers ripened to optimal size so they were pretty big by the time I arrived home and made it out to my garden to harvest them.

I planted a "pickling" variety of cucumber this year. Pickling cucumbers make for a crunchier pickle than the table or slicing varieties.

Pack the cucumber slices into pint-sized jars.

I also cut some of the cukes into spears.

And packed them into quart-sized jars.

While I was packing, my neighbor prepared the dill (from her herb garden) and peeled and halved cloves of garlic.

We divided the dill evenly among the jars (1-2 tablespoons of freshly chopped dill) and dropped a clove of garlic into each, before pouring on the vinegar brine, releasing the air bubbles, topping the jars, and twisting on the bands.

These also processed for 10 minutes in a water bath canner. This is an advantage of canning pickles and pickled peppers at the same time. If you've got space in your canner, you can process them together.

Here's a jar of our sandwich-sliced pickles cooling on the counter.

And here are the spears. (Which I processed for an additional 5 minutes because I packed them in quarts vs. pints.)

This is our "haul" for the day. I usually only have one jar break when processing over a whole summer of canning. On this day, I had two jars break in the canner. (I guess I'm set for next year, then.) 1 jar of peppers and 1 quart-sized jar of pickle spears busted on the day we canned these or 1 per canner. This is always frustrating because 1. I have to stop and clean the canner, then re-start the water again AND 2. the produce is wasted. Bummer.

Still, we ended up with 4 pints of pickled peppers, 9 pints of sandwich dill pickles, and 1 quart of pickle spears. It may seem like a lot of work, but you can't put a price on the pride derived from preserving your own produce. Plus, we had fun doing it. I'm sure that when the two of us place a pickle on our burger at the next neighborhood cookout, they will taste PERFECT! : )

Kosher-Style Dill Pickles adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

Makes: 6 pints (36 servings)
Prep: 40 minutes

ingredients

2-1/4 pounds 4-inch pickling cucumbers (about 36 cucumbers)
3-3/4 cups water
3-3/4 cups white or cider vinegar
6 tablespoons pickling salt
12 to 18 heads fresh dill or 6 to 8 tablespoons dill seed or freshly chopped dill
6 small cloves garlic or 3 large cloves, halved
Directions
1. Wash cucumbers thoroughly and scrub with a vegetable brush, if needed. Remove stems and cut off a slice from each end. (Enzymes at the blossom end of the cucumber may also cause softening.)

2. To prepare the brine, combine the water, vinegar, and salt in a saucepan. Heat until the mixture boils.

3. Pack the cleaned cucumbers loosely into hot, clean pint canning jars, leaving a 1/2-inch headspace. Measure the headspace from the top of the food to the rim of the jar with a clean ruler. Add 2 to 3 heads of dill or 3 to 4 teaspoons of dill seed and garlic to each jar. Place a wide-mouth plastic funnel in the jar and ladle the hot brine over the cucumbers. Remove the funnel. Release trapped air bubbles in the jar by gently working a narrow rubber spatula around the jar's sides. Add additional brine, if needed, to maintain the 1/2-inch headspace. Wipe the jar rim with a clean, damp paper towel. Any food on the rim prevents a perfect seal. Position a prepared lid and screw band on the jar and tighten according to manufacturer's directions. Place each jar into boiling water of a water-bath canner as it is filled. The jars should not touch. Cover the canner. Process filled jars in the boiling water for 10 minutes. Begin counting the processing time when the water returns to boiling.

4. When the jars have cooled, press the center of each lid to check the seal. If the dip in the lid holds, the jar is sealed. If the lid bounces up and down, the jar isn't sealed. Unsealed jars should be stored in the refrigerator and used within 3 days. Let jars stand 1 week before using. Label the jars with the contents and date. Store up to 1 year in a cool, dry place. Makes 6 pints (36 servings).

nutrition facts

Servings Per Recipe 6 pints (36 servings)Calories9Total Fat (g)0Cholesterol (mg)0, Sodium (mg)1067, Carbohydrate (g)2, Fiber (g)0, Protein (g)0, Vitamin A (DV%)0, Vitamin C (DV%)2, Calcium (DV%)1, Iron (DV%)1, Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Notes: We doubled this recipe. Also we sliced or speared our cucumbers before packing them into jars.

Posts from the Farm: Home Canned Salsa and Tomato Juice

Okay, so technically I'm not posting this one from the farm. After 16 days away, I'm finally home! However, all of the work and photos shown here occurred during my stay on my parent's farm. So, I'm counting this one as my final summer "Post from the Farm".



The downside of being away for so long is that I find myself with an abundance of laundry and a complete lack of food. Upon our return, we didn't even have (drinkable) milk in the fridge. This morning while my kiddos split the last 3 waffles from the freezer, I popped open a jar of freshly home-canned tomato juice and enjoyed a glass on the deck. I confess, I've never ever poured myself a glass of tomato juice before. It always sounded kind of gross to me...especially for breakfast. But it was good!

One of the advantages to being home on the farm is the abundance of produce. One of the growers for Red Gold also farms our land. I had their generous permission to pick what I wanted. Those ripe Roma tomatoes were so thick on the vine that with two of us picking, we had three big laundry baskets filled with tomatoes in about 45 minutes.



Roma tomatoes are a meaty, pear or egg-shaped variety of plum tomato. They are an excellent choice for canning whole, salsa, or sauce.



I decided to spread out my tomato canning over two days. On the first day I made salsa. Lots of salsa....54 pints of salsa to be exact. Someone recently asked what I planned to do with so much salsa. The truth is, I've already given away 18 jars to my family. I shared 2 jars over the weekend while camping with friends, and in the two days that we have been home, we've gone through another 2 jars on quesadillas, on scrambled eggs, and with chips while watching a Sunday night movie. We are salsa lovers! Chips and salsa are the perfect solution for an on-the-fly snack when company shows up. I use a lot of salsa in recipes too...like my chicken soft tacos or my baked chimichangas. I'm pretty sure that I'll be out of salsa by the time that canning season rolls around next year.



I think that it's kind of cool that my salsa is made out of the very same tomatoes as salsa that you can purchase in the grocery.



This year I made one batch of mild, 3 batches of medium, and 2 batches of hot. It's always important to label your home-canned goods, but with this salsa labelling was especially important so that I know the level of "heat" that I'm going to get with each jar. After 10 hours of salsa canning, I was a little slap happy and took some creative liberty with my salsa labelling.









For my completely detailed account about canning salsa and my recipe, you can check out the post from last summer HERE.

Today, I'm writing the "How To" all about tomato juice.

On the dawn of tomato juice day, my phone alarm sounded and I rolled right out of the bed. This was not the day to hit "snooze". My feet landed next to the clothes that I'd peeled off the previous night (it may have been closer to morning), a mere 5-1/2 hours before. As I picked them up, I noticed that they smelled like the local Hacienda restaurant. Seeing no point in ruining two outfits, I tossed them on again and headed downstairs for my pre-tomato canning beauty regimen: tooth brushing and deodorant. While I brushed my teeth, I noticed that my hands carried the same distinct Hacienda scent as my clothes. I jumped in the car and drove the short trip to my grandparent's house, where 2 more baskets of tomatoes awaited saucing. I had a lot of tomatoes to cook down into sauce before a planned 2:00 pm departure for a weekend of camping with my husband and a group of our college friends. I needed to get a move on it! I burst into my grandparent's house with my arms full of canning supplies and...Hello Hacienda! The salsa smell hit me like a wall. Sorry grandma and grandpa. Apparently, after being immersed in the salsa smell for 10 hours, I didn't notice it by the time I closed up shop the night before. Grandma's house is supposed to smell like cinnamon and fresh baked cookies and spring flowers...not a Mexican chain restaurant! A little damage control was in order. 15 minutes later with vents turned on, a window opened, candles burning, and coffee brewing, I finally dug into those tomatoes.

I start out by washing the tomatoes in a bath of cold water first.



Then I remove them to a colander and rinse em' again.



Most people remove the skins before canning their tomatoes whole or for sauce. We have a Squeezo Strainer which presses the tomatoes for sauce or juice and removes the skins and seeds as it passes through. So in my case, I just removed any bad spots and cut the tomatoes in half, then tossed them into a large pot (I used my water bath canner) to heat and soften.



Heat the tomatoes over medium heat, stirring often until they start to "mush". Sorry for my lack of precise technical information. I do follow recommended guidelines and rules of canning for the most part, especially on processing time, but after years of canning, some of this is just intuitive. I know...I'm sharing information with the masses...I should pay more attention! Well, here's a tip: Don't fill your pot too full, it makes it tricky to stir if you do. I usually fill my pot halfway full of tomatoes for this step. Make sure you stir the tomatoes often because they can burn and stick to the bottom. When the tomatoes are ready, they will look something like this:



Using a large liquid measuring cup, pour some of the tomatoes into the top of the Squeezo Strainer. These strainers are expensive, but the company boasts a lifetime warranty. We've been using this one for over 30 years, so I believe it! I use mine for grape juice, apple sauce, tomato juice and sauce, and lots more. You can see how I used the strainer to make applesauce last fall right HERE.

Once the tomatoes are in the strainer, just push them down with the plunger as needed, turn the crank, and let the strainer do it's work.



The skins and seeds drop into a bowl at the end (seen on the left).



And the sauce and juice are pressed through the strainer holes and then slide down the chute and into a bowl.



Roma tomatoes are not traditionally a juice tomato, but the product that we were getting from the strainer was pretty juicy. This was partly because the meaty Roma tomatoes were clogging up the strainer, allowing mostly juice to pass through. I played around with the attachments, trying one with larger holes, but then seeds were passing through into the sauce. Not good. I resolved to stick with the medium sized (sauce) strainer attachment and just take it apart and clean it out every batch or two as needed.

With such a thin, juicy sauce, I realized that what had passed through the strainer would need quite a bit of time to cook down into spaghetti sauce. Plus, chopping onions and garlic and adding herbs would be time consuming. Then there was the 45 minutes of processing time once every jar was filled. My youngest sister had arrived to help out right before we ran the first batch of tomatoes through the strainer. After a quick assessment, we made the executive decision to shift gears and can tomato juice, rather than spaghetti sauce. My little sister had wanted juice anyway, so it wasn't a difficult decision. In a few hours, I was going camping and she was going to have to finish processing all of the jars.



Once the juice is squeezed, heat at 190 degrees for 5 minutes. I also added a little salt, to taste. I went with a little less than 1/4 cup of salt per 4 gallons of tomato juice (roughly).



I was rushing to get all of that juice into jars and ready to water bath, so I didn't get many pictures of the next few steps. Using a funnel, I ladled the juice into jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. I went through and added bottled lemon juice to each of the jars. The recommended amount is 2 tablespoons per quart. I cheat a little and add less for the sake of flavor. But that's just me. I know that a certain amount of ascorbic acid is recommended for perfect, safe, preservation. But before the recommendation changed, we used to can it without the lemon juice. These days, I have decided to compromise and use half. If you are nervous about home canned tomato juice and safety issues, then go ahead and use the full amount and feel good about it. Once the juice is in the jars, wipe down the tops to clean off any juice that sloshed over when pouring. Then apply a heated lid and tightly screw a rim over each jar.




When the jars are ready, arrange them in a water bath canner, covered with at least one inch of water. Bring to a boil, then cover and process for 40 minutes.



Remove the jars of juice from the canner to a flat surface (I prefer a towel-covered countertop) and allow the cans to cool and seal for 24 hours.



Check the seals on each jar and label before storing.

When every last jar was removed from the canner we had 35 quart of tomato juice. According to my research, it takes about 3 lbs. of tomatoes to yield a quart of tomato juice. This means that we canned about 105 pounds worth of tomatoes for juice...or one really full laundry basket.



I'm here to tell ya, home-canned tomato juice is da bomb! These Roma tomatoes made a really tasty, hearty juice. I am very pleased with the finished product. I'm convinced that home-canned tomato juice is the reason that my chili is head and shoulders above most that I have tasted. I'll use this juice through the winter in all of my tomato-based soups and now I know that it's great straight up out of the jar for breakfast too!

As I wrap this up, I want to point out my go-to resources when home canning. First, the Jarden Home Brands 21400 Ball Blue Book and also the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book (Better Homes & Gardens Plaid). This year I had a new resource, Put 'em Up!: A Comprehensive Home Preserving Guide for the Creative Cook, from Drying and Freezing to Canning and Pickling which came to me with a whole care package full of canning goodies courtesy of another food blog that happen to love, The Seventh Level of Boredom.

If you've always wanted to try home canning, but just never got around to it or you're nervous that you'll make a mistake, then pick up one of these books and get started! Canning your own food gives you a sense of accomplishment AND you'll have a great tasting, high quality, economical, better for the environment product! Happy Canning!



*On another note, I know that it's been a bit since my last post and I haven't posted a meal plan and grocery list in weeks. With this post I declare: I am back! I'll be cooking and posting all this week. Next week, I promise the usual weekly meal plan will return! Stay tuned....there's good stuff on the horizon!

Canning Peaches

I'm like Ally McBeal, there's always a soundtrack playing in my head. And I can't preserve peaches without this song, released in my senior year of high school, playing over and over in my mind as I put peaches into the jars. Does anyone else remember this?

Peaches lyrics from the Presidents of the United States of America

Movin' to the country,
gonna eat a lot of peaches
Movin' to the country,
Gonna eat me a lot of peaches
Movin' to the country,
gonna eat a lot of peaches
Movin' to the country,
gonna eat a lot of peaches

Peaches come from a can,
they were put there by a man
In a factory downtown
If I had my little way,
I'd eat peaches every day
Sun-soakin' bulges in the shade

Millions of peaches, peaches for me
Millions of peaches, peaches for free...


Now on to these gorgeous, gorgeous Michigan Red Haven Peaches.



Red Haven are my favorite variety of peach. They're juicy, sweet, fine grained, semi-freestone, and they're great fresh, frozen (my favorite), or canned. Most importantly, they're so pretty! I love how the brilliant red center gives my jar of peaches a pretty pink hue. I may be biased because I grew up eating this variety of peaches, but it is an educated choice. I've tried California peaches, a variety of Georgia peaches, and most recently Ohio peaches. In my opinion, these Michigan Red Haven peaches win grand prize in the taste test.

I've been fortunate. Year after year these peaches just turn up at my mom and grandma's houses. I don't really know the details, except that my uncle knows a guy in Michigan and obtains a truckfull of peaches from him every summer. This means that the women in my family are busy putting up peaches every year around this time. I'm not complaining, a day or two of work means that we get to enjoy this delicious fruit all year round.

We always lay the peaches out to finish ripening. This is the pool table in my grandma's basement. My mom usually puts down newspaper in the garage, basement, or laundry room and we spread out the peaches there. Once the peaches are ripe, you have a small window (a day or two) to begin preserving. In my experience, peaches go from ripe to rotten pretty quickly.



Once the peaches are ready for preservation, run a sink full of water and place some peaches in the sink to ready them for peeling. You can also drop the peaches into boiling water for 20-30 seconds and then plunge into cold water and the skins will come right off without even using a paring knife. I find that ripe peaches peel so easily, that I skip the boiling step.




Prepare quart-sized jars by washing and drying. A bushel (48-50 lbs) of peaches yields approximately 21 quart of canned peaches, so I washed 21 jars before starting.



Now you're ready to halve and pit the peaches. Just look at the color around the pit. Gotta love those Red Haven peaches!



Fill a bowl with water and Fruit Fresh or other ascorbic-acid color keeper. Submerse the peeled peaches. I usually clean peaches until this bowl is full, then begin filling the jars.



Drain the peaches in a colander, then fill the jars by placing peaches cut side down. Stack the peaches on top of one another to the top, leaving 1/2" headspace. I fill to the bottom line where the canning ring screws on. Wide mouth jars work best when canning halved peaches so that you can get your hand down in there and arrange the peaches more easily.



Before I even touched a peach in this canning endeavor, I made a light syrup. In a large pot, I combined 20 cups of water and 10 cups of sugar. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to keep hot while you fill the jars with peaches.



Rather than just write about how to prepare the peaches and put them into jars with the syrup, I had a brainstorm as I was placing peaches into the first jar. I could show you. Because I was at my parent's house, I had a camera man. My dear old dad. Okay, so not that old. Sorry, Dad. We did this in one take because my dad was anxious to return to the pole barn. Of course, when you watch yourself on camera you're extra critical. Why didn't I say this? Why didn't I pull my hair outta my eyes? Why was I wearing that horrible apron?! Hey, don't knock the apron! That happens to be my peach canning apron. Actually, it was the first apron I grabbed off the top of my mom's apron drawer. All ruffle-y and heart embroidered and from the looks of it, straight from a 1978 church bazaar. Gotta love it! At least it kept the sticky peach juice off of my favorite rhinestone-embellished Margaritaville tee shirt. I also added a little background muzak (that is, ambient background music)to the video to tone down the distracting sound of my children playing loudly outside of the kitchen window. You may hear, "Look mom, I'm driving!" I hope to put together more instructional clips in the future, so there's room for improvement. Now that I've established my disclaimer, here you go:

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

When the jars are filled and ready to process, place them in a water bath canner filled with heated water. The water should cover the top of the jars by 1". Cover and bring the water to a boil. Quarts of peaches should process for 25 minutes. This water bath canner holds 7 quart-sized jars at a time. I put in one batch and then continue to clean peaches and fill jars while it processes. This way, by the time one canner full of peaches is cooling, the next one is ready to begin.



Remove the jars with a canning jar lifter and place them on a dry towel to cool. Leave at least 1" of space between jars to allow air to circulate.



Just like the salsa, the peaches will seal as they cool. You'll know that the jars have sealed by observing the following:
•Hear the seal - Hear the "plink" as lid snaps down while jar is cooling, or tap lid with spoon when jar is cold. A clear ringing sound means a seal.
•Observe the seal - If the lid is curved down, the jar is sealed.
•Press the seal - After the jars have cooled, press the center of the lid. If it is down and will not move, the jar is sealed.

Once the jar is cool, remove the rings or screw bands. Ring bands free of rust may be reused. Wash and dry them and store for future use. Label each jar with the date canned and contents. Store the peaches in a cool, dark, dry place such as a shelf in your basement or your pantry. But first, sit back and admire the fruits of your labor. Isn't this lovely? And yummy too! My family just polished off the first jar tonight for dessert.



Canned Peaches

Equipment:

20-23 clean quart sized widemouth canning jars
20-23 widemouth canning lids
20-23 widemouth ring bands
hot water bath canner
canning jar lifter
canning lid lifter
ladle
canning funnel
colander
large bowl
paring knife
towels

Ingredients:

1 bushel of your favorite ripe peaches
20 cups water
10 cups sugar
Fruit Fresh or other ascorbic acid color keeper

Make a light syrup by combining water and sugar. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and keep hot. Halve, pit, and peel peaches. Drop into a bowl prepared with water and Fruit Fresh. Drain the Fruit Fresh water off of the peaches by placing them in a colander. Place drained peaches into a jar, cut side down, filling to first line at the top. Using a funnel, ladle syrup over the peaches until the syrup reaches the fill line. Release air bubbles in the jar by running a table knife down the side. Wipe tops of jars. Place heated canning lid on each jar and tightly screw down the ring bands. Add the jars to the heated water in a water bath canner. Make sure that the water in the canner covers the jars by 1". Cover the canner and bring to a boil. Process 30 minutes. Remove from canner. Cool completely. Check seal. Label. Store.